Author Interview & Giveaway ~ Vanessa Morgan

Hey my beautiful people! 🙂

Today, I bring you Vanessa Morgan! And, wait for it.. There’s a Giveaway!!

About Vanessa Morgan

Vanessa Morgan is an author, screenwriter, and blogger. Three of her stories (The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Next to Her) have become movies. When she’s not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching horror movies, digging through flea markets, or photographing felines for her blog, Traveling Cats.

My two latest books couldn’t be more different from each other. The first is called “Avalon.” It’s the true story of my Turkish Van cat who made a name for himself by becoming a movie star. But he also differentiated himself because of his neurotic tendencies – he was so jealous he concocted special techniques to get my boyfriend out of the house, he vomited purposefully on my guinea pig, and managed to speak a few words of French (I swear this is true). But what made his life truly special was the out-of-the-ordinary bond we shared together.

The latest one, “When Animals Attack,” is a horror movie reference guide comprised of 70 essays on horror movies about killer animals. Each essay is written by a different writer. Among those writers are film historians, filmmakers, actors, bloggers, horror fiction authors, and film festival programmers. I edited the book and wrote the introduction and the essay on Wild Beasts. It’s the ultimate guide for everyone who loves creature features.

The Interview

How long did it take to write “Avalon” and “When Animals Attack”?The first rough draft of “Avalon” took about two months, but I needed about a year to rewrite and perfect the book. “When Animals Attack” also took about a year. I initially gave my writers three months to write the essay, but 70% of the writers couldn’t meet that deadline. Several of them fell off, so I had to look for other writers. Half of the new batch was equally bad with deadlines, and so on.

What inspired you to start writing?The desire to write started when I saw Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” on stage when I lived in London. I instantly wanted to create something equally beautiful. I started writing soon after and haven’t looked back since. I think that what I really want to accomplish is to make people feel something through my writing, to entertain them and to make them discover something about themselves.

How is the journey of a screenwriter? It’s a weird one. I started my career by wanting to be a screenwriter. I tried for several years but my efforts never paid off. Then I started writing books and suddenly producers were coming to me to ask if they could turn them into films. I never tried to sell the rights; it just happened.

Three of your stories (The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Next to Her) have become movies. How was that experience in turning your books to movies? Was that unexpected or planned? “The Strangers Outside” was someone’s first movie and the result is not something I’m proud of. However, this film started my cat’s movie career and I had great fun on set. “A Good Man” was technically well done but it included only a chunk of my original screenplay and didn’t reflect the story the way I intended it. I’m most happy with “Next to Her,” because the director, cast and crew managed to not only portray the story truthfully, but to make it much better than it was to start with.

Where can we watch your movies? I’d rather you don’t watch “The Strangers Outside” and “A Good Man” because they’re not representative of my work, but you can watch “Next to Her” for free if you subscribe to my newsletter.http://eepurl.com/bYqgNr

What is your favorite motivational phrase?
“Become your dream”

Who is your favorite writer or idol? I adore Carol Drinkwater’s writing style. I used to love John Saul’s thrillers when I was a teenager, and I recently reread one of his books and it really struck me how similar my writing style is to his.

What is your favorite movie?I’m absolutely crazy about a creepy seventies movie called “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.”

Something that you love other than reading and writing?Going to film festivals, eating out, obsessing over my cat.

Did you expect so many of positive reviews on your books?I always try to do the best I can, so I always hope for positive reviews but I don’t expect them. “Avalon’ is the book that was best received so far and the only one where the reviews really blew me away. I kind of expected the story to annoy people, because I wrote it to honor my cat and didn’t think my life with him was that interesting. I also expected people to hate it because I was 100% honest about my failures and insecurities and how they influenced the obsessive bond I had with my cat. But somehow, the story touched people and many recognized themselves in it.

Something you would say to aspiring writers who are just at the beginning?Don’t worry if your writing is awful in the beginning. I promise you it will get better. And if you ever doubt that you’ll never be able to finish a book without someone else’s help, you’re wrong. If you persist, you’ll always find a solution.